Man's Last Freedom

"In spite of all the enforced physical and mental primitiveness of the life in a concentration camp, it was possible for spiritual life to deepen. Sensitive people who were used to a rich intellectual life may have suffered much pain (they were often of a delicate constitution), but the damage to their inner selves was less. They were able to retreat from their terrible surroundings to a life of inner riches and spiritual freedom. Only in this way can one explain the apparent paradox that some prisoners of a less hardy makeup often seemed to survive camp life better than did those of a robust nature…
The experiences of camp life show that man does have a choice of action. There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress.
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way."

From 'Man's Search for Meaning' by Viktor Emil Frankl

Happy New Year

How are you getting along with your New Year's resolutions?
I'm still keeping one that I made back halfway through last year - to prioritise and to focus my time and effort on the things that are most important. That's why I havent been blogging much over the last few months; I simply haven't had the time...
Don't get me wrong - I like the internet. It's a great way to interact with people you might not otherwise be able to reach. When Paul or Jesus wanted an audience they went to the marketplace or the synagogue or the river - nowadays their first step might well be to open an account on Facebook.
Using social media, though, is quite different to being defined by them. If we're not careful we can get so caught up in the world of Twitter and Facebook that we replace the living of real life with the promoting of an airbrushed image of ourselves for the approval of others. We end up spending more time and effort documenting our lives than we do enjoying and experiencing them. That's why I've not been blogging so much - it would have been easy to cook up topics and simply keep on posting but that would have been self-defeating. The reason so many of you read this blog is to pick up the odd little nugget from my life - my real life - that might be of some value to you also. And if I'd spent more time writing than living it would have merely been writing for the sake of it, divorced from its subject, devoid of real value and to be honest not worth the effort of reading.
If you really want to know, I've been spending a few months just being with those I love, working very hard, serving God and puzzling through a few challenges. Several times I thought, "Hmm, I ought to do a post..." but didn't really have anything to say. Then finally I realised that not having anything to say was actually quite an important message in itself, and so I wrote this.
I'll give you some updates as the months go by, once the things I've been up to have soaked down into my soul and distilled into something worth communicating. Until then, I offer you the same challenge I've embraced - prioritise, spend your time and effort on the things that really matter to you, and don't waste your energies on mindless self-promotion. Wait a little while, and you'll find that in the silence both your message and your purpose will become clear.

On Shaky Ground

The recent earthquake in Haiti was a terrible disaster which caused a lot of damage, and regrettably some of the recent comment about it on BBC Radio 4 has been rather similar.
It all Started on Wednesday's Today programme when John Humphries decided to interview a notable Anglican Archbishop about the tragedy. I was at work with the radio playing quietly in the background when Humphries threw the Archbishop the 'old chestnut' question; If there really is an all-powerful and loving God, why did he allow such death and destruction to happen? I pricked up my ears at this, turned up the volume and waited for the Archbishop to answer.
He didn't.
He waffled, manoeuvred and came out with such rarified theological vagueness that I had no idea what he was talking about.
"I'm sorry, Archbishop," Humphries said, "But I don't think I understood that, and you didn't answer the question. How could a loving God permit such a tragedy?"
Again he evaded the issue, and as the interview ended I was left shaking my head and thinking, 'If I was a non-believer, I'd walk away from that thinking that he didn't answer because he had no answer; that in the face of such suffering faith comes up empty and those who profess it are left with nothing to say.
That was bad enough, but in true 'unbiased' BBC fashion two days later Humphries replayed a clip of the Archbishop's flounderings and then wheeled out a humanist.
"Simple logic," he declared dismissively. "If God really existed, and was all-powerful and all-loving then there is no way he would have allowed this to happen. No earthly father who loved his children would build a home for them knowing it was dangerous; knowing the roof might fall in and crush them, knowing they were likely to suffer injury or death. No earthly parent would do that."
Ah, there it is. The mistake these people so often make is that they insist on building their tower of logic on a false foundation using only the bricks that happen to come in their favourite colour. And the Archbishop didn't help, because although the Bible offers clear and authoritative answers to these questions he didn't seem to know what they were. So the poor listeners were left to sift through the mess left by an expert who didn't know his subject and a fool who delicately left out the one thing that would otherwise have blown his argument to shreds.
No wonder our nation is in such spiritual darkness.
The flaw in the humanist's argument is this: God did not build a dangerous house for his children. In Genesis 1:31 we clearly see that after creating the heavens and the earth, the sea, the dry land, mankind and all of the animal kingdom, 'God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.' So when God created the world, it was perfect. The earth was a paradise, and life was a paradise. That's the way God always intended the human experience to be.
The reason the world is in the mess that it is today is because man broke it. After Adam and Eve rejected God in Genesis chapter 3 and chose to do their own thing (the Bible calls this 'sin'), God says in Genesis 3:17 "Cursed is the ground because of you..."
God begins to run down the consequences of their choice, but he does it with tears in his eyes. He's not saying 'You insignificant worms, since you've dared to disobey me I will now smite you with all these punishments'. Rather he cries, 'Children, don't you realise what you've done? Don't you know what you've brought upon yourselves?'
The Bible is very clear on this. Natural disasters, planetary distress, sickness, disease and death, accidents, misery, pain, injustice, hatred and every example of man's inhumanity to man is an inevitable outworking of man's original decision to turn his back on God.
John Humphries was asking the wrong question. If you really want to know what happened in Haiti then don't blame God. Blame the shopworker dipping into the till. Blame the feral youth assaulting the pensioner in the dark alley. Blame the businessman cheating on his wife. Blame the politician who misleads the people. Blame the persuasive speakers who use national prime-time radio to lead us ever further into spiritual darkness. Blame all who have ever lied, cheated, lusted, cursed, hated or hurt. Blame every one of us. Blame yourself.
Ouch.
Instead of admitting this, though, we rail at God. We shake our fists and accuse Him, we hurl our indignation into His face when all God has ever done is weep for this fallen world and the pain that fills it; pain that is a direct result of the fall of man.
But hang on, if God originally built the house safe and good but now it's dangerous, would a loving God leave His children there to suffer the consequences? Wouldn't an all-powerful God be able to step in somehow and fix it?
God did. He did the only thing that could be done to address such a grave problem. He intervened personally in the form of Jesus Christ to deal with the root cause - mankind's sin. The whole point of Christ's birth, life and death was not to start a religion but to rescue mankind from a mess that they could never fix by themselves. Just as the problem flows from a decision, God approaches every member of mankind individually (sensible if you think about it, since suffering is individual) and invites them to be a part of the answer. Yes it will take time, but when God's plan comes to fruition it will have been worth the wait. The book of Revelation tells us that on that day "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away". On that day, Isaiah tells us, "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the cub lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them." Romans 8 tells us that right now "the whole creation groans and suffers together" but when that day comes "the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God's children".
Free-thinkers like our logical friend run screaming from such an answer, but if we apply the logic they're so fond of we see that in reality there is only one other option. Since the problem is sin, God must either save us from our sin or remove our ability to sin. He could do the latter by taking away our free will, by not having given us the capacity to think and choose in the first place. This would prevent us from bringing evil upon ourselves but only by reducing us from glorious creatures of judgement, intellect and appreciation made in the very image of God to little clockwork automatons mindlessly shuffling along our predestined courses in a perfect but nightmarish world.
When I was a boy I had a model railway which was very realistic. The trains ran through forests and fields beside a river that actually flowed, and they were always on time. Lights burned in the houses when darkness fell and even the windmill turned, but the people on those trains were nothing but ornaments. They never got on or off because they loved someone, cherished a great work of art, dreamed great dreams or wanted a day at the seaside. I, the omnipotent railway god, sat at my controls and everything moved at my design, but for all that activity there was no life. I don't think any self-respecting humanist would prefer such a solution. And quite frankly, neither would God.
So, having sorted that mess out, let's get to the real question that all the contributors on Radio 4 should have been asking. How should we respond to something as terrible as the earthquake in Haiti? Quite simply, our response should be the same as God's - compassion should move us to intervene and do all that we can to help. I've already visited the DEC website (http://www.dec.org.uk/). I pray you'll find it in your heart to do the same.

Happy New Year

It's the time of year again for New Year's resolutions. You know the sort of thing; lose weight, exercise more, spend less - a thousand and one good intentions prompted by the purchase of a new calendar. Problem is though, the calendar usually lasts much longer than our resolve.
It's strange how we think that the new year provides special potential, that somehow we're much more able to change when the year does than at any other time. Truth is, though, that there's no difference between the minute before midnight on the 31st December and the one that comes after it. They're only man-made divisions of time and both provide the same sixty second's worth of opportunity.
When we make New Year's resolutions but fail to see them through we can fall into despair and think everything is lost, but in reality we can make a new start at any time. This is a great truth we often miss, and one that's worth remembering. Every day is a new day, and every morning brings new possibilities. So does every minute and every hour. You can't change the past, but you can shape the future, and every second that passes is a chance to strike out in a new direction.
This year, resolve not to be held back by negative thinking, small faith and past failures. Let go of old grudges, clinging resentments and the "I Can't" mentality. If you make up your mind to change on the inside, things will change on the outside. "With God, " the Bible says, "all things are possible," so even the giants you can't manage are possible with His help.
Be encouraged, my struggling friend, and press forward constantly for all God intends you to be, whether it's the first of January or the twenty-sixth of November. Refuse to give up, don't stop believing and never quit. That's the way to have a Happy New Year.

A Letter From The President

Recently, in the bicentennial year of Abraham Lincoln's birth, a letter sent by the famous president was sold for £36,000.
Big deal, you might say. What's so special about that? Well, what's special about this letter is not so much who sent it but who it was sent to.
You see, this letter, delivered nearly 150 years ago, was sent to an eight-year-old schoolboy.
The story is an interesting one. As a young boy, George Patten was with his journalist father when they both met the commander-in-chief. When he went back to school George excitedly reported the encounter to his classmates and teacher - but nobody took him seriously.
Mocked by his disbelieving classmates George stuck to his story to such an extent that his exasperated teacher wrote to the president. And back, by return, came a hand-written, signed letter.
It read: "Whom it may concern, I did see and talk with master George Evans Patten, last May, at Springfield, Illinois. Respectfully, A Lincoln."
What's so precious about this letter is that it was sent just two weeks after the president's inauguration. At such a time, having just become the most powerful man in the nation at a critical moment in its history, I'm sure Lincoln had many worthy things he could have devoted his energies to. I'm sure there were many important documents waiting to be read and signed, people to meet and places to go, but it says something about the man that he recognised the importance of this simple plea for help and responded, settling all doubt. Now, nobody could ever say again that George Patten had not met with Lincoln.
The parallel for us is simple yet profound. No matter how unimportant we may feel, our prayers before God carry the same weight as those uttered by the great and powerful. No matter how personal our request may seem, God never writes it off as unimportant or not worth considering. God, like Lincoln, resists the modern tendency to lump people into categories and instead sees the value of each individual. And, like Lincoln, each individual gets his undivided attention and a personal response.
So next time you get down to pray, remember Lincoln's letter and realise that the author of all time and space just put down his pen for a moment to listen to you.

Procrastination

I've always been prone to procrastination. Once an item gets onto my to-do list it becomes a little indicator light winking away in the dark part of my brain, a constant ticking metronome that says "do me; do me; you know you've got to do me..." If I ignore it begins to flash faster and the voice protests "Hey! I'm still here! Do me now!" You can imagine how bad it gets if I put something off until it becomes embarrasing or critical (or both), and given my busy schedule it's small wonder that my head sometimes feels like a Christmas tree in imminent danger of meltdown.
The problem is, just because I put something off doesn't make it go away. It sits there with its other unfulfilled brethren, draining my time, resolve and energy with their incessant demands. I have to look at each one of them, sort them into priority order and then make a plan. Once I've promised myself "I'll do this next Thursday," the flashing stops and I can find the mental space to do what I'm supposed to be doing right now.
It's a problem that affects us all, particularly in today's world. The urgent can so easily overshadow the important until the urgent is all we ever do. We become driven by the tyranny of the moment, so busy putting out fires that we never get to what needs doing later - until it becomes too hot to handle. Then we have to deal with that, which means we never get round to what needs doing later, and so the cycle goes on - a mad runaway ferris wheel of doom sweeping us around so fast that we can never get off.
When we live like this the spiritual always gets neglected. That's because it never becomes urgent - until the day we die or have a nervous breakdown of course. But spiritual well-being is crucial. Where else can we find the inner resources to deal with life's demands? How else can we put our lives into context and so dedicate our time and talents to the things that really matter? No tall tower can ever be stable without a good foundation, and the higher you build the better your foundation needs to be. How much time are you investing into yours?

Seasons

It's that time of year again here in the UK. I realised this week when I changed back onto the early shift and woke to find it dark outside my window. The nights are drawing in, the heat has gone out of the sun and it won't be long until the dreaded season of winter has us once again in its icy grip.
I hate winter. I hate getting up in the dark, driving to work in the dark, watching the dawn from my desk and seeing night fall again all too soon from the same spot. Then I drive home in the dark and try not to feel as if every second of my 'real' day has been stolen by my employer. I hate standing in the cold and dark driveway, trying to scrape impenetrable ice from the car windscreen with a plastic scraper that always breaks, then finding as I try to drive away that I still can't see because my breath has frozen on the inside of the glass. There are some days I'm only warm when I'm in bed, and being of slim build the cold grips me to the core of my bones.
For years I used to say there were only three good things about winter: Bonfire night, Christmas and my birthday. But I was wrong. There's a fourth - winter ends!
No matter how much I hate it, the thing that keeps me going is that spring is just around the corner; that sooner or later the cold will break, the trees will bud, the garden will flower and I'll be able to throw my thermals back into the cupboard for another year.
The seasons are God's way of reminding us that dark times don't last forever and better days will come. This is true of life itself and not just the weather. If things are hard for you right now then hold on to the thought that life won't always be this way. Look ahead to good things down the road, and let their prospect cheer your soul as, like me, you ride out the winter storms

Spare a Thought for the Unicorns

An atheist summer camp in Somerset is offering children aged seven to 17 a "godless alternative" to religious camps traditionally run by the scouts and church groups, the BBC reports. Camp Quest, according to its promoters, is "dedicated to improving the human condition through rational inquiry, critical and creative thinking, scientific method… and the separation of religion and government".
That doesn't sound too bad - until, that is, you take a look at the centrepiece of the week's activities.
As the principal task of the week the camp asks its participants to search for two invisible unicorns. The unicorns cannot be seen or heard, tasted, smelt or touched, they cannot escape from the camp and they eat nothing. The only proof of their existence is contained in an ancient book handed down over "countless generations". A prize - a £10 note signed by Professor Richard Dawkins - is offered to any child who can disprove the existence of the unicorns.
That sounds really open-minded, doesn't it? Even if you look beyond the thinly-veiled and vaguely mocking allusions to the Bible and to God, the fact that the children are challenged to disprove the unicorns' existence suggests to me that their minds have already been seeded with the appropriate outcome. Sorry to rain on the parade, but that's not scientific. True science looks objectively at the whole body of evidence and seeks to draw meaning from it without making prior assumptions. If you decide something is or isn't true before you start you'll just end up gathering evidence that supports your theory.
Then, of course, there's the prize. The glorious reward for giving up the treasures of a life of faith, the security of unconditional love and comfort in the face of death is one miserable ten-quid note defaced by Richard Dawkins. That's not much of an exchange.
But look deeper - money is a man-made concept, it gives a false sense of security yet is inherently unreliable, it promotes arrogance, pride and amoral living, and ultimately it never satisfies. Maybe it's an appropriate reward after all.

The Eagle has Landed

Today is the 40th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing, an amazing achievement for all mankind that still captures the imagination. Most people's thoughts will be on Neil Armstrong's historic descent of the ladder and that immortal phrase spoken from the last hesitant rung, "That's one small step for a man...".
But for me there's something about the moon landing that's even greater. To place that one individual at the foot of that ladder took over 400,000 men and women from every trade and discipline, all working together to achieve something that had never been done before and that many considered impossible.
But they did it anyway; from President Kennedy who set the challenge through Gene Kranz the mission controller, the flight surgeons, spacesuit designers, meterologists, communications engineers, rocket fuel chemists, machine shop workers, accountants, administrators, secretaries and the people who made the tea, every one of them contributed something vital to the mission's success. Despite the setbacks and the tragedies - like the launchpad fire that killed the three astronauts testing Apollo 1 - they pressed on and fought through until the dream was fulfilled. Though Armstrong stepped alone onto the moon in reality he was never alone - there were 400,000 others with him and he rode there on the shoulders of giants.
The Apollo programme shows that no matter how crazy the dream, nothing is impossible. If we truly work together to make it happen, becoming part of something greater than ourselves, then there's nothing we cannot do. And if it ever falls to us to stand upon the pinnacle of success, let us honour the labour, vision and sacrifice of those who paved the way before us and made it all possible

Bigotry and Intolerance

I was somewhat dismayed today by a BBC News article on Sunday's televised Miss USA competition. During the contest Carrie Prejean - Miss California - was asked for her views on same-sex marriage by one of the judges, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. She replied, "We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offence to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised."
Those aren't words I have a problem with. As the transcript clearly shows, Miss Prejean wasn't attacking anyone; she simply stated her personal opinion in a polite and respectful way in response to a direct question.
No, what bothers me is the reaction she got.
Hilton said he was "floored" by Ms Prejean's answer, which, he said, "alienated millions of gay and lesbian Americans, their families and their supporters". What!? I'm sorry Mr Hilton, but just because an individual differs from you doesn't give you grounds to say their identity alienates a whole section of society. I'm white, but I don't feel alienated because America chose a 'black' president. I'm heterosexual, but I don't feel alienated because someone else chooses to be gay. I'm a Christian, but I don't feel alienated when other people disagree with my views.
Mr Hilton, and those who hurried to agree with him, clearly have a problem here. Their rhetoric is far more reminiscent of a petulant, pouting child in a primary school playground than visionaries seeking to lead the ignorant from darkness into light. Campaigners for gay rights have spoken out passionately for many years against bigotry and intolerance, yet here we see them committing the very same sins they have condemned in others for so long. I'm afraid that rather undermines the credibility of your comment, Mr Hilton.
Needless to say, Miss California didn't become Miss USA, but in my view she still left the contest a winner. "It did cost me my crown," she said after the competition, "but I wouldn't have had it any other way. I said what I feel. I stated an opinion that was true to myself and that's all I can do."
What should she have said, Mr Hilton? Would you have given her more points if she'd prostituted herself for the crown and told you what you wanted to hear? What kind of a judge would that have made you? Integrity used to be prized, a precious diadem of virue crowning any young woman's character. But when people trample it underfoot to further their own agenda in the midst of a beauty pageant that's the ugliest thing you could ever hope to see.

Little Things

I've had a rotten cold for the last few days. It came out of nowhere; I went to bed feeling fine then woke in the night thinking, "My throat is on fire!" The rest, as they say, is history.
Everyone knows these things are caused by viruses, and a biochemist friend of mine told me a few things about them. Apparently a virus is a fragment of DNA that can infiltrate the resident DNA in a cell, effectively hijacking it to perform its own evil will. I often ask my friend if he's found a cure yet for the common cold but he replies that it's not that easy. Even though a virus is just a shred of DNA the part of that shred that causes us problems is smaller still and mutates constantly, making any classical drug obsolete the moment it is designed. The challenge is to find a way to target the stable 'carrier' part of the virus DNA - without killing everything else in the process.
It's sobering to think that a six-foot-one 13 stone alpha-male in superb physical condition (okay, that last part might be a slight exaggeration) can be brought low by a foe so small you'd need an electron microscope to see it, but I can assure you it's true. So often it's the smallest things that cause our biggest problems. Thoughtless words and actions can be the wedge that splinters a marriage. Just a little compromise with sin can explode to destroy your credibility and wreck your destiny. And how many times has spiritual laziness and indifference left me wondering what happened to the presence of God?
There is an old proverb in Yorkshire which says, "Take care of the pennies, and the pounds will take care of themselves". Success as a Christian does not come by mission statements, strategic plans or great visionary intentions. It is achieved daily, amid the cut-and-thrust of life by a series of seemingly insignificant decisions to do the right thing.

The Tomb that Speaks to the Living

In the quiet of Westminster Abbey in London, tucked away among the final resting places of generals, kings and statesmen is the grave of a young woman named Mary Beaufoy. I found this memorial years ago while exploring the Abbey and the memory of it, along with the photographs I took on that day, have remained with me ever since.
The reason? This grave speaks to the living.
Mary Beaufoy was the only daughter and heiress of Sir Henry Beaufoy, of Guyscliffe, near Warwick, and the Hon. Charlotte Lane, eldest daughter of George Lord Viscount Lansborough. Standing there in the Abbey's stillness, looking at this tomb, it isn't too hard to imagine how the hopes and dreams of Sir Henry and Lady Charlotte were bound up in this one precious child. She would have been their laughter, their joy, and the quiet confidence that one day their title and lineage would pass to another. But Mary died on July 12, 1705, aged just 28, and their hopes died with her.
Such was the impact of this tragedy, and yet through her grief and loss Lady Charlotte resolved that her daughter's death would not be in vain. The tomb she commissioned at the hand of the famous woodcarver Grinling Gibbons bears a striking message, one which stopped me in my tracks all those years ago and one which I pray will speak to you too.
This is what it says:
"Reader! whoever thou art, let the sight of this tomb imprint on thy mind that young and old, without distinction, leave this world; and therefore fail not to secure the next."

What a Waste of Time

Do you like wasting your time?
Hebrews 11:6 describes what is possibly the biggest lost cause of them all, and yet one into which otherwise intelligent people have poured huge amounts of time and effort down through the ages. The verse says "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."
Many seek to prove or disprove the existence of God by their intellect, by clever philosophical argument or logical reasoning. Some point to the natural world or the laws of science while others turn to history and comb ancient texts in dogged pusuit of a secret clue.
But all this is a complete waste of time. If we're going to "come to God" as the verse says, if we ever hope to approach that place where God can be found and seen, then there's only one way and that is to come by faith. The writer is very clear, "he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." Notice the word "must." Your arguments won't bring you to God and neither will they prove his non-existence. Science, nature, and all the intellect and philosophy of man will equally get you nowhere. Even religion is a waste of time. Unless you're willing to exercise faith your search will be in vain.
This upsets some and frustrates many more, but that's the way it is. You see, if God really is God then His position gives Him the right to make the rules. And He's decided that only those who are prepared to approach Him in humble faith are going to find Him. "Humility," as a wise friend of mine often says, "is what gains entrance." It's your ticket to the door, it places your name on heaven's guest list. The humble soul stops trying to evaluate God, to disprove God, to analyse God, and simply worships Him. It makes sense if you think about it - if we could understand God, categorise Him and explain Him then by that very act we've reduced Him to the level of our own intelligence and discovered that after all He's no wiser than us. But the glory of the true God is as far beyond the grasp of our feeble human understanding as quantum physics is beyond the reach of the average family dog. If God truly is God, then we can never figure Him out. But what a glorious truth it is that while we could never reach Him by our own efforts God has provided a way for us to find him, a way so simple that it can be mastered by the lowliest peasant or the youngest child.
Stop wasting your time. Approach God in simple, humble faith and you'll find that He's more than willing to make Himself known.

Perspective

People are more important than things.
Friends have more value than funds.
And eternity is more significant than this short, fleeting life.

Ten to one?

Someone once said, "God gave us two ears and one mouth - to be used in that proportion".
Wise words. We would all do well to listen more than we speak.
Then I realised that God gave us ten fingers. Does that mean we should abandon conversation altogether and spend our time on Facebook? Perhaps not; but it does prove that we should be careful not to stretch our clever illustrations so far that they make fools of us.

Gail Trimble

This year's University Challenge quiz has been won by Corpus Christi College in Oxford, who beat Manchester University by 275 points to 190 in the final. Amazingly, Corpus Christi has less than 400 students, but what's even more remarkable is that the team owes its success to its captain, 26-year-old Gail Trimble, who single-handedly scored two-thirds of her team's 1,200 points in a stunning performance described by the BBC as an "intellectual blitzkrieg". This achievement has thrust the bemused Miss Trimble, a Latin scholar, into the national media spotlight and seen her hailed as a sex-symbol. She's even had an offer from Nuts magazine for a "tasteful photo shoot". Yeah, right.
This, of course, got me thinking. Would the BBC be so fascinated by her if she was just a good student quietly getting on with her Latin? I doubt it. Would Nuts magazine be craving her body if she'd never been on University Challenge? Probably not. Gail's achievements haven't changed her innate worth or beauty as a person but they have changed the way people see her. Every day we evaluate people on the basis of their celebrity status, health, wealth or outward appearance and, without thinking beyond what we see, we label them. Jesus never made that mistake and neither should we; whether with Gail Trimble or anyone else.

Jade Goody

In case you didn't know (where have you been?) Jade Goody, a media celebrity here in the UK, got married today. Unfortunately though what should have been a happy occasion was tempered somewhat by the knowledge that she's been diagnosed with cancer and has only weeks to live. Do you have important things to do and to say? Let us attend to them now, while we have the opportunity.

Political Correctness

This seems to have become a requirement for modern life. What you write, what you say and even the opinions you hold had better conform or you'll soon find yourself in trouble. Don't get me wrong, I strongly agree that we should respect and value others regardless of who they are, what they are like and how they choose to live. After all, every single human being on the planet is a unique creation of God with their own hopes and dreams and just as much right to a place in the sun as you and I. The problem comes when political correctness is stretched until you become afraid to speak the truth, express an opinion or call something by its real name because that may offend. This is just another way of saying "I forbid you to say anything about me I don't want to hear" hidden under the noble-sounding premise of "respect my feelings and don't offend me". What incredible self-centred pride! And what a sad place to live. The truth hurts sometimes, but faithful are the wounds of a friend. Jesus said that when we know the truth, the truth will set us free. Unless we allow others to tell us the truth about ourselves without crying foul, we will never see ourselves as other see us and we can never change to become better people.